Rugby World Cup 2011: England didn't deserve to go through to the semi-finals, admits Toby Flood

Toby Flood has provided a damning insight into the reasons behind England’s
doomed World Cup campaign and warned that Martin Johnson’s side will only
move forward if the lessons are learned from the quarter-final defeat to
France.

Despondent: Toby Flood says England will only move forward if lessons are learned from their quarter-final defeat to FrancePhoto: GETTY IMAGES

Flood, who started the 19-12 defeat at Eden Park on Saturday at inside centre despite playing the vast majority of his Test rugby at fly-half, said England could not afford “to hide behind a façade” in the review of the campaign, which is being led by Rob Andrew, the Rugby Football Union’s acting director of elite rugby and soon to be appointed professional rugby director.

Flood said the players had let both themselves and England’s supporters down by their “shocking” exit and questioned whether they had been clear in their tactical objectives as they were outplayed by a French side who had already lost to New Zealand and Tonga in the pool stages.

“I feel that yes we gave our all, but were we doing the right things?” said Flood, who at 26 is likely to emerge as a strong candidate captain England to the 2015 World Cup as Lewis Moody has already declared this was his last World Cup campaign.

“Were we clear in the sense of what we were doing in different scenarios? We have to learn from these mistakes and hope that, in four years’ time, the guys who were here can use these experiences.

“World Cups only come round every four years, they are something very special and to be involved in a final last time was a great occasion which meant so much to a lot of people.

“I think this time we feel like we’ve not only let ourselves down but our travelling supporters too and the fans back home too. We can’t hide away from that. Sure, we are professional players and we take our losses and deal with them, but this is something very different because when you lose these games it stays with you for longer.”

Flood said England had been caught off-guard by France’s tactics in the first half which saw Marc Lievremont’s side make effect use of a kick-and-chase game, and said it was crucial the side became more streetwise in adapting to the opposition during games.

“France changed their game plan and drove it to keep us back and kept us from flying out of the line,” Flood added.

“They were smart, I think they out-thought us, especially in that first 20 minutes, and when they went 6-0 up it fuelled their fire and allowed them to force their hand in the game.

“From the moment they went 16-0 up we thought if we can get back in the game by scoring before half-time then they might just wobble, but ultimately we didn’t score until 25 minutes to go and by then it is very difficult to turn a game around.

“We were chasing our tails a bit in the first half and I think it’s important we realise that, in these games, we have to engage our brains and engage our bodies in terms of what we’re doing.

“Sometimes we look to one another for cues and timings of things whereas other teams are just flying around and hitting us.”

While players like Moody, Jonny Wilkinson, Steve Thompson, Tom Palmer, Nick Easter, Mike Tindall, Andrew Sheridan and Simon Shaw are almost certain to have played in their last World Cup, Flood insisted that the majority of the squad who will be around for the 2015 must now harness the pain of Saturday’s defeat.

“There will be a lot of eligible (players), in terms of age, to play again for England, but we need to raise ourselves and our ability as a team by learning from our mistakes here,” Flood added.

“We can say “ifs” and “buts” and “whens”, but no-one will know how much it hurts to lose in a quarter-final and not be here for the rest of the tournament, until you feel that pain, until you feel that over-riding feeling of disappointment.

“Guys are going to feel that now, it’s going to hurt, the screw is going to be turned pretty harshly and it’s just shocking that we are going home but we don’t deserve to be here because ultimately we didn’t stand up to be accountable. We have to learn from our mistakes. We can’t sit here behind a veil of saying everything is okay and we did some nice things. Ultimately, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. At times we looked threatening and at times we were disappointing — we disappointed ourselves.

“The most difficult thing is that we worked so hard in pre-season with the golden chalice of a World Cup to aim for. Guys were literally throwing up on the field, working that hard to achieve something, so for it all to be washed away in 80 minutes, I hope that really drives us on as a team.

“We have fallen short — we haven’t even made the last two weeks of the tournament. You are going to come here aiming to win it and when we saw the draw we thought, ‘Yes, we’ve beaten France this year’ and, ‘Yes, we’ve beaten Wales this year’, so there was a chance for us and we have fallen short because we haven’t achieved the goals we set out to achieve. It’s difficult to put into words how hard you’ve worked and how disappointing it is not to achieve your goals.”